We are not seeing the benefits of the EACOP-Kyankwanzi Affected Persons

Monday, June 29th, 2026 | By

Residents of Nabulembeko parish, Wattuba sub county Kyankwanzi district expected to reap big from the East African Crude Oil Pipeline, EACOP.

They hoped for better education, jobs, good roads, health services and business opportunities.

 They believed the pipeline would change their lives for the better.

According to Nuru Muyima, a resident of the area, the first expectation was about education. She expected Kikajjo Primary school, with over 400 leaners to be upgraded.

She also expected new schools with enough classrooms, desks and computer laboratories for their children.

“We saw on TV how oil helped other countries build schools. We told ourselves, our children will now study like children in Kampala (Uganda’s Capital)”, she narrated her expectations.

Parents imagined bursaries and scholarships for bright students who could not afford secondary school tuition. They hoped the pipeline company would support Kikajjo Primary with books, science equipment, and teacher housing.

Today Nabulembeko primary school still has 6 classrooms. Parents say no one from the pipeline project has visited the school to ask what the school requires.

 “Oil means development. For the parish like Nabulembeko that had only murram roads and one government secondary school, the word development carried big dreams”, asserted Mr. Kizito David of Kikajjo village.

The residents expected jobs for their members. Kikajjo has many youth without work. They instead wonder around the area and can’t find any meaning source of employment. With the advent of the EACOP, they heard phrases like employment, skills training and local content.

Sharif Byekaso, a youth from Nabidondolo says that when construction started many jobs went to people from outside Kyankwanzi and their expectation of steady jobs turned into no hopes.

Anna Marry Kityo, a mother of five dreamt of pregnant women reaching Health Centers without pain from bumpy roads.

Nabulembeko parish does not have a health center, the nearest being Kikolimbo Health Center III, 8km away. It has no doctor with few drugs and no ambulance. Women give birth at home with help of traditional birth attendants.

The residents expected a big project like the EACOP to come with emergency of developed trading centers for business. Instead, there are growing emergency of substandard structures housing majorly urban poor youth.

The East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) is a 1,443km insulated pipeline transporting Ugandan crude oil from Kabaale (Hoima) to Tanzania’s Tanga port, with 296km in Uganda. It traverses 10 Ugandan districts, including Hoima, Kikuube, Kakumiro, Kyankwanzi, Gomba, Mubende, Lwengo, Sembabule, Kyotera, and Rakai.

STORY COMPILED BY GERALD SSENKOOMI